This invention relates to Apple Trees and, more specifically, to apple trees referred to as a variety, or budsport, of Malus domestica Borkh. `Empire`.
I discovered this new and unique variety of apple tree as a limb sport on an `Empire` in a cultivated area near Walden, N.Y. The tree of this invention produces a fruit of attractive commercial value, coloring 21/2 weeks before `Empire`.
This new variety of apple was asexually reproduced by grafting near Walden, N.Y., and Aspers, Pa., and such reproduction has shown this new variety to come true in three successive generations. This propagation of the new variety by grafting under standard controlled conditions clearly discloses the continued maintenance of the characteristics described herein which distinguish this new variety from the parent cultivar.